Bethlehem Teachers Learning To Improve Minority Grades

February 07, 1995|by KATHARINE McKEE, The Morning Call

Black and Hispanic students in the Bethlehem Area School District are far more likely than white students to be suspended, fail a class, be held back a grade or score low on standardized tests, district statistics show.

So district administrators have been going back to school to learn how to fix the problem.

"We won't solve it by saying these children come from poor families or dysfunctional homes," said Assistant Superintendent Michele Kostem. "We need to set that aside, and then change our attitudes and increase our expectations."

The district is one of eight enrolled in the Equity Academy, a six-year program organized by the state Department of Education and state Human Relations Commission to improve the academic performance of minority students.

Now in the second year of the program, the district last night presented data from the 1993-94 school year that will serve as a comparison to mark progress as Equity Academy techniques are implemented.

The data show:

*In the high schools, 36 percent the black males and 40 percent of the Hispanic males were suspended at least once, compared to 15 percent of the white males.

*In the middle schools, 41 percent of the black males and 47 percent of the the Hispanic males were suspended at least once, compared to 12 percent of the white males.

*Across the district, 51 percent of the 239 students held back a grade were black or Hispanic. But these two groups make up only 26 percent of the total student population.

*In the high schools, 57 percent of all black students and 55 percent of Hispanics failed at least one subject that year; 24 percent of white students failed a subject.

*In the elementary schools, 44 percent of the black students and 33 percent of the Hispanic students scored above the 50th percentile in a reading comprehension test, while 72 percent of the white students scored that high. The figures were similar at the middle school level.

"Half of our students scoring in the lowest 25 percentile are minorities," Kostem said. "That in my mind is unacceptable."

The state Department of Education and the state Human Resources Commission "have made it clear that they are not interested in the reasons why the present gap in achievement between white students and minority students exists," says a report presented to a committee of the Bethlehem Area School Board last night.

"It is their stated view that educators are responsible to have all students learn at the highest level possible and that it is our job to do so," the report says.

Board member Joseph McCarthy said teacher attitudes and lower expectations for minorities are a big part of the problem.

Though more than 26 percent of the students are minorities, less than 5 percent of the teachers are.

Kostem said the focus of the Equity Academy program will be to heighten staff sensitivity to issues of diversity and multiculturalism and teach teachers to have equal academic expectations of all students.

Equity Academy team members in the district have attended two three-day conferences with state representatives and guest speakers to discuss the issues and to begin preliminary plans to address the problem.

The team has also met with principals and staff to review the data for each school and to explain the purpose of the Equity Academy. Each school has selected its own equity team to work with the district to develop a plan.

"Equity Academy will be coming back at the end of the six years and they will want to see a difference in our scores," Kostem said.

Carl Dorsey, a concerned district resident, said after the meeting that the disparity has "probably existed for at least 10 years."

"To wait another six years to see if this works -- that's too long," he said.